Job 5:11

he sets ¹  the lowly ²  on high, that those who mourn ³  are raised ⁴  to safety.

The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

So that He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to safety.

He gives prosperity to the poor and humble, and he takes sufferers to safety.

He raises up the down-and-out, gives firm footing to those sinking in grief.

Lifting up those who are low, and putting the sad in a safe place;

he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to safety.

he sets ¹  the lowly ²  on high, that those who mourn ³  are raised ⁴  to safety.

¹ tn Heb “setting.” The infinitive construct clause is here taken as explaining the nature of God, and so parallel to the preceding descriptions. If read simply as a purpose clause after the previous verse, it would suggest that the purpose of watering the earth was to raise the humble (cf. NASB, “And sends water on the fields, // So that He sets on high those who are lowly”). A. B. Davidson (Job, 39) makes a case for this interpretation, saying that God’s gifts in nature have the wider purpose of blessing man, but he prefers to see the line as another benevolence, parallel to v. 10, and so suggests a translation “setting up” rather than “to set up.”

² tn The word שְׁפָלִים (shÿfalim) refers to “those who are down.” This refers to the lowly and despised of the earth. They are the opposite of the “proud” (see Ps 138:6). Here there is a deliberate contrast between “lowly” and “on high.”

³ tn The meaning of the word is “to be dark, dirty”; therefore, it refers to the ash-sprinkled head of the mourner (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 54). The custom was to darken one’s face in sorrow (see Job 2:12; Ps 35:14; 38:7).

⁴ tn The perfect verb may be translated “be set on high; be raised up.” E. Dhorme (Job, 64) notes that the perfect is parallel to the infinitive of the first colon, and so he renders it in the same way as the infinitive, comparing the construction to that of 28:25.